22 WHITE— A Sketch of the Life of Samuel White. 



not think that it would be out of place here to allude to the 

 saving of life by the knowledge of birds 1 habits. We know 

 that this is by no means a solitary case. Only a short time 

 ago Dr. Wm. MacGillivray, of Broken Hill, was telling me 

 how his father's life, and that of a companion, was saved al- 

 most in the same way as the above, but in this case it was the 

 flight of pigeons which attracted the attention of the early 

 pioneer in Central Australia after he and his companion had 

 given up all hope of finding water. There is no doubt many 

 more would be added to the list of saved if they had only the 

 knowledge of the habits of birds. The Satin Bower Bird had 

 led Samuel White to a waterhole in a river, for which he had 

 been searching for weeks, and he discovered it was many miles 

 to the south of the position marked on the map. They followed 

 the river as well as the nature of the ground would permit. 

 Often belts of jungle could only be penetrated by cutting a 

 passage for horse and cart, and the contour of the country 

 often lead them miles out of their course. Bird life was more 

 numerous here because many large waterholes had not dried 

 up, but they crossed many small creeks coming down from the 

 ranges which were quite dry. After some time it was found 

 that this river was taking a turn into the hills, and that it 

 would be necessary for them to cross it, so they searched for 

 a crossing, but a good one could not be found. The side on 

 which the brothers were was low and covered in a dense 

 jungle to the very edge of the water, while the opposite bank 

 was high and steep. Cutting a track through the sub-tropical 

 jungle to the river they forded the horse and cart across the 

 stream. But difficulties began on the other side. When half- 

 way up the cart capsized, and with the horse rolled down the 

 steep bank, where it was stopped by a fallen tree lying right 

 across its course, and between this tree and the bank the mare 

 became firmly wedged on her back, kicking and struggling 

 frantically. The tree, being about two feet in diameter, 

 dead and hard, it took the greater part of a day to cut it 

 through with a blunt tomahawk before the mare could be re- 

 leased, and she was so numbed when she rolled into the water 

 that the travellers despaired of saving her, but she eventually • 

 recovered. The boxes, which contained specimens, stores, 

 ammunition, guns, etc., broke open and their contents were 

 thrown into the water. The cart had to be taken to pieces 

 and hauled back to the place from whence it had fallen, and 

 there put together, and while doing this one wheel fell back 



